Rabbi Hired To Replace Mikveh-Peeping Barry Freundel at Kesher Israel

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Friday 17 March 2017

(JTA) — Kesher Israel has hired a successor to Rabbi Barry Freundel, who was arrested 2 1/2 years ago for secretly videotaping women in the mikvah ritual bath of the Washington, D.C., synagogue, and is now in prison.Rabbi Hyim Shafner, a congregational rabbi in St. Louis since 2004, will serve as the senior rabbi of the modern Orthodox congregation in the Georgetown section of the nation’s capital. Rabbi Avidan Milevsky has been serving on an interim basis since July 2015.In a letter to the congregation, Kesher Israel President Elanit Jakabovics described Shafner as “humble, genuine, spiritual, and healing,” as well as “sensitive to the needs of his community and thoughtful in his approach.”Prior to his St. Louis experience, Shafner served eight years as the campus rabbi at the Hillel of Washington University in that city. He and his wife, Sara Winkelman, spent a year working with the Jews of India, where he served as a community rabbi for the Jews of Mumbai.Read more : http://forward.com/fast-forward/366260/rabbi-hired-to-replace-mikveh-peeping-barry-freundel-at-kesher-israel/